David Gordon Green at the 63rd edition of the Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin,AP Photo/Markus Schreiber

By MARC MOHAN

When David Gordon Green visited Portland in early 2008 to promote the release of his film "Snow Angels," things were about to change big-time for the laconic, Texas-raised filmmaker.

Since his 2000 feature debut, "George Washington," Green had attracted critical acclaim with the lyrical, intimate drama "All the Real Girls" and the thriller "Undertow," which was executive produced by his mentor, Terrence Malick. All that acclaim, as it so often does, failed to translate into much commercial success, however, and by the time I sat down with him on a clear February morning, he had already finished directing the Judd Apatow-produced "Pineapple Express." That stoner comedy was released later in 2008, and was followed by similar, less lauded efforts "Your Highness" and "The Sitter." (He's also become one of the prime creative forces behind the hilarious HBO series "Eastbound & Down.")

By the 2011 release of "The Sitter," which received some truly lacerating reviews and remains the only one of Green's films I haven't seen, many of his early supporters expressed befuddlement and even anger that this poetic, gifted director seemed to have sold out so thoroughly. The truth, of course, is more complicated, but fans who lamented his move away from small-scale independent filmmaking should be heartened by the release of "Prince Avalanche."

In it, Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch play a pair of Texas road crew workers working on a line-painting project through a desolate stretch of wildfire-scorched terrain. As they meander along, bickering and bonding, they encounter occasional oddballs such as the truck driver (Lance LeGault) bearing alcoholic gifts or the forlorn woman (Joyce Payne) who might just be a phantom. Made secretly last summer, "Prince Avalanche" debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival and won Green the best director award at February's Berlin Film Festival.

It's the work of a filmmaker who has trod the dirt paths of independence and cruised the freeways of Hollywood, and who may have found a third path incorporating elements of both. He recently spoke by phone about the new film and the circuitous route that brought him to it. "Prince Avalanche" opens Friday at Living Room Theaters. First things first. What's the deal with Paul Rudd's mustache in this movie?

Well, in the original idea we had, the two characters look kind of like Super Mario Brothers and then we got into a little bit of a debate as to who would be Mario and who would be Luigi. But Paul has better facial hair than Emile's so he wanted the "stache" and then he also had this idea that he wanted to wear, like, 1980s Roger Ebert glasses. So when you see him writing and reading, he's wearing those glasses. "Prince Avalanche" is a remake of an Icelandic movie called "Either Way," which to my knowledge has not been released in the U.S. How did you come across it?

I was talking to my friend Matt, who's an art director in New York. I was telling him, "I want to make a movie that's two characters and a landscape, really strip down the process and fine tune what I love about making movies and working with actors." And he said, "Oh, a friend of mine just worked on this movie in Iceland, and they were doing that. They said it was a really cool experience." He told me about the movie so I hunted it down, just out of curiosity, knowing very little about it, but knowing that it had won the grand jury prize at the Torino Film Festival, which my first film had won. I tracked down a copy and really fell in love with it and thought it would be a great template to be able to make a great character piece. Relocate the backdrop to a place that I found more personal and closer to home, and use "Either Way" as a blueprint. I love the film and I think "Prince Avalanche" pays great respect to that film, and at the same time it has a real personal signature for me and my collaborators on it. Were the characters in "Either Way" involved in the same kind of work?

Yeah, they're painting stripes on the road, although they had a hand roller. We got a machine, so we updated a little bit. They also had the '80s time period ("Prince Avalanche" is set in 1988), which I felt was essential to keep them isolated from the rest of the world and minimize the communication between them and their loved ones. When "Prince Avalanche" premiered at Sundance, people didn't quite know what to expect, since it hadn't been publicized at all during the production. Was it your intention to be secretive, or was it a case of just being modest and not drawing attention?

No, I was definitely trying to keep it quiet. I think one of the things that, from a filmmaker's perspective, can be frustrating is the expectation of an audience. Sometimes word will leak out about a project I'm developing that has no significance or reality, but it's something that I'm toying with, and then there's a headline somewhere, and then people are asking if they can get a job on the movie. From a fan's perspective, it's just based on enthusiasm or interest. But from a filmmaker that's trying to defy expectations and try new things, it adds a degree of pressure that can be frustrating. I really liked the idea of stripping all that away and making something very quietly and very quickly and very cheaply. Literally, the idea came to me in February of 2012 and we were sound mixing in July, you know? And that's a fun way to make a movie. I mean, it's done before they can think about it and argue about their salaries or give you development notes, or do a test screening that goes poorly, you have to reshoot half the movie, you know? It just irons out all of that, so that it is what it is. The movie is dedicated to Lance LeGault, who plays the truck driver and who died shortly after the film was completed, and who's probably best known for playing Col. Decker on "The A-Team." How did he get involved, and what was he like to work with?

Lance was an incredible character actor that I met when I was doing a Dodge commercial in Tehachapi, Calif. He wasn't someone I'd cast, but he was just kind of showing up. He lived in Bakersfield and was pretty much retired but would do background work on commercials and movies and things like that. So I just hear this voice, and I turn around and was like, "Oh my God, I know that guy." And I didn't place it. I'm usually really good at that kind of thing. I started talking to him, and he refreshed my memory of being in "The A-Team" and "Magnum, P.I." and "Stripes," and all these things. And then he played with Elvis for years. And his records are incredible. I went out to dinner with him, at the same time as I was writing "Avalanche," and I said, "I've got to put you in this movie." It was cool, because he looked at the movie like he was doing us all a favor, these young whippersnappers. But it was a really cool experience, and his wife actually came to Sundance for the premiere of the film, after he'd died, and really thought it was a beautiful little salute to him. I was surprised to notice that the movie got an R rating, considering there's no sex or violence, and the language has almost a naive, middle-school quality to it. I don't want to poke you into getting into a beef with the MPAA, but ....

Already done. It breaks my heart because I really made every effort to make this a movie that I wanted to present to kids as, like, when I was discovering Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee in the eighth and ninth grade. You know, those movies that were a little left of center but had personal stories to tell. And I was very successful at sneaking into R-rated movies but I really wanted to put an effort into making this something that was appropriate for all ages and it really is frustrating when we see "World War Z" and "Pacific Rim" and even "Superman," PG-13 movies that are just about death and destruction and mutilation and here's a movie with no profanity, no nudity, no sex, no violence, and yet it's rated R because there's a middle finger and the guys simulate (masturbating). Really bizarre. I mean, it's just a baffling standard that the industry has accepted, and I wish it wasn't the case, but outside of editing my movie it seems like something that I'll have to live with, and just focus on decapitations and zombies for the next one.

Let's talk a bit more broadly about your career. This narrative has developed where you abandoned indie films for Hollywood after "Snow Angels," and are now coming back around again to your roots after going through the studio wringer. Is that a narrative you're comfortable with, or is it an oversimplification?

After I'd done "Snow Angels," it was like, I've made four dramatic films that audiences really didn't turn out for. I wonder what would happen if I just reinvented myself and tried to make something that was like a commercial comedy. That was an incredible experience, and I realized that you can have a ton of fun making projects like that, and have great support of the studio and really wonderful experiences. So I really rode that train for a while, getting to tell stories outside of the dramatic wheelhouse and learn a lot about everything, from visual effects to car chases and explosions, and the experience I had on the three studio films I did back-to-back was really magnificent. But also, after three of them, I was ready to stop talking about making movies so much. A lot of the studio process is presenting and pitching your ideas, and then you get the notes or you get the green light, or the thumbs down, or whatever it is. Or you show it to an audience, and they like it or they hate you, and it's about looking for acceptance. And I thought it would be cool and refreshing for me to do something where it was me looking to my immediate collaborators and it was up to us to make what we want. "George Washington" was made in that way.

All my movies are made very self-indulgently, but that was the only one other than "Avalanche" that was nobody's business but ours. It's great to point out to you, because my cinematographer, Tim Orr, lives in Portland. He's shot all 10 of my films. Well, nine, and dozens of commercials and TV series. We can look to each other and say, "Hey, you're not a test audience in Burbank, Calif. giving me the laugh," but if Tim's cracking a smile, I know it's worth going for. And when you have that kind of trust of your collaborators -- Chris Gebert, our sound mixer, Richard Wright, my production designer -- even the composers on "Prince Avalanche" were on set, and very close friends of mine. We're a band of filmmakers, we really selfishly want the audience to take a ride with us on our journey.

You've gone in such diverse directions along the way. If someone told you that they loved every film you've made, would you almost find that a bit worrying?

Yeah, well, not even my mother will say that. But it's just so funny, I'll be stopped on the street and some guy will come up and start quoting "The Sitter" to me and then you'll get thrashed by a critic, telling you, how dare you give up your dramatic .... It's like, where you take your praise, or if you take your praise. Certainly the first season we did of "Eastbound & Down" was very difficult because I think we confused a lot of the audience, and it took a couple seasons to really get people in sync with what we were trying to do, to get the network into really pushing the show. So I think some of my projects have been slow burns and acquired tastes, so to speak. I was told recently that "All the Real Girls," which is my second film, actually made more money three years ago than it did the year that it came out.

Well, it does feature the screen debut of the inimitable Danny McBride. It's a movie I've always had a soft spot for, having seen it at 8 a.m. on a snowy Tuesday morning at the Park City Library.

I appreciate it. And that was a movie that was, much like "Avalanche," made from a very personal place. And I think what distinguishes "Avalanche" for me is that it also invites the audience that does watch "Eastbound & Down," or likes the comedic movies that I've made, and I think it keeps the meditative emotional qualities and dramatic qualities of some of my earlier films. And I'm really thrilled that the reception of this movie seems to be coming from all sides, which I find very, very unique and exciting. Marc Mohan is a Portland writer. He can be reached at marc.mohan@gmail.com